Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (Week Ending 5-3-04)
I fully agree the vender problem is out of control
first you need a way that a player can petition the vender to ultimatly remove itself and if a player leavesthe game his vender is put on a timer just like houses so they will ultimatly dissapear.
second you need a way to do a search for a specific product throughout all the terminals of a reigon planet or universe this way a player can confirm that at least one of the product he is after is on the vender and confirm its stats before making a wasted trip
lastly the orgaization of the items windo is very cluttered and confusing lots of info is displayed that doesnt need to be.
auction/instant simply use a red green color change
priority doesnt need to be displayed either its at the top of the list or its nor and examining the item can tell you if its listed as priority
what i really want to see is price per unit
I would also like to see a market that specificly deals in bulk hoppers instead of packages
if a player deals in steel he should be able to make 1 listing instead of dozens of small ones just use a base % fee whenever the player posts product then I as a player could buy 100 or 1,000,000 of an item
lastly have a way players can post demand tickets for products for other players to fill this allows a doctor to post a listing for a special need like dantooine berries that another player can fill
Hey I have a couple of ideas
1. Let Doctors, Combat Medics, Dancers and such that go on faction raids be able to get some faction points when the enemy is killed. Its these ones that keep the troops going and there is no reward for them. It is rare they actually get to DB anyone. Maybe let grouped PVP's get shared faction when one in the group DB's the enemy. And let CM's heals work for only the grouped players. It seems fair to me. It will make the CM not as tough but still a very valuable asset to the team.
2. I also would like the option to be able to put my faction rank above my name. After the hard work of moving up in rank one might actually get some respect from fellow faction members.
3. Since the balance is leaned towards the Rebellion right now then the need for change is a must.
My opinion of a player wanting to join the Rebellion is for a couple of reasons, one is its theGood side, two is that your the UNDERDOG and love to fight against the odds! This will make the rebels have to be craftier just like the movies.
My opinion of a player wanting to join the Empire is for a couple of reasons, one is its the Dark side, two is that you want the power that the dark side offers ( strong AT-ST's for example ) this means not easy to kill. YES make em hard to kill, it SHOULD take a large group to bring them down. At the same time cant have everyone on the block running around with one so increase the faction cost to 30k or more. Earn it!!
For both factions, as you go higher in rank the harder it should be for a lower ranked enemy to kill you. Yes your HAM increases in small amounts when you move up in rank. Might give some benifits for more to move up and play overt more often. This should not be a drastic HAM increase that a Novice combatant can kill a Master but enough that the Master might want to Rank up. For this to be fair a player should have to hold a specific amount of faction to keep his rank. ei.. Colonel has to hold 30k faction to keep his rank. The more he dies the lower in rank he goes, and his HAM drops a bit. Punishment for failure! Imp and Rebel.
Give high ranked officers when Overt some battle leadership skills. Commands like Squad leader that help all faction members in a 100m raduis some battle benefits.
Promotions should be givin not by faction costs, but battle honors. The amount of rebels killed, bases taken out, PvP deathblows, and so forth. When you drop in rank by getting killed alot you will have to take missions and kill more to move back up.
Just a few ideas,
IronFist - AHAZI-
and other charactors i dont want to reveal. Just that there Colonels.
I, myself, can see a world of problems to integrating the game worlds to the point you seem to have hoped for.
I CAN see computer generated space battles in the night sky (tiny white dots and esplosions weaving overhead) when major battles occur near system planets. Other than that, any hope for integration in the 2 systems was highly unrealistic.
Viewing distances are so short in-game- due to the data load, and starship speeds are so fast, that any craft will be long gone by the time it renders in that "visible sphere." Static objects- like hills and large structures- can be rendered at distance since they have limited parameters and ARE STATIC. You want lag? Imagine adding updated positioning parameters to every starship within 1km of a player. It just was never realistic.
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Bombing runs? If you thought certain professions were overpowered before, imagine what a bomber pilot would be like- "15 Riflemen/Combat Medics at waypoint -2334 3111." "Roger, commencing run.... Run complete. They're all dead."
There will likely be bombing missions, but as PvE- type targets as "objectives" with PvE AND PvP starship defenders. It will not interfere with players on the surface.
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Finally, lag comes in many flavors:
Lag from server overflow- this is SOE's problem
Lag from net connection quality- this is out of SOE's hands, but one they're constantly blamed for. When in a city / big battle, the server needs to constantly communicate the positioning (x,y,z, & facing), appearance parameters (height, weight,and all those customizable features), equipment used, actions being taken, etc for every person, npc, and creature spawn in "viewable range."
Lag from client machine- your processor, RAM-swapfile, or video cards can all be bottlenecks, unable to render what's coming in rapidly enough. This is the most common failure- and solely the players' responsibility. Even if you tone down all detail and viewing distances, incredibly high-traffic areas can kill the client.
There's also a theory that lag *MAY* be caused if other peoples' clients are not up to snuff. This is just a theory. Many MMORPG's give advantage to a faster client machine- if the slow one misses a time-cycle, the player loses an action. Some *could be* designed to have a brief millisecond "pause" to give the slow machine opportunity to retransmit, delaying the rate of time, and giving the appearance of "lag." From what I can tell, SWG does not use this format.
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A space environment SHOULD have less lag for the same amount of people. Ships have less customizable visible features and fewer animations, making the data transfer per vessel much smaller and easily to transfer. This means less server-level load, and less network-level load.
Client machines will likely- AGAIN- be the bottleneck. While the appearance parameters have gone down, increased, particle explosions, and nebulae, in space combat will offset this advantage. Forget the minimum requirements. If you're not safely within the recommended requirements, you'll have serious lag.
good job actually even if some minor bugs or revamp needed
just i'd like is not to see quest camping ( like in eq , ris armor.... ) and not too much random spot for quest ( like the jedi's ? )
it takes too much time for the casual gamers who pay the same amount than others
just a quote about , 80% performance is code programming 20% is hard and sgdb
oracle can't be a probleme if well managed and used ( it's the fastest sgbdr )
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Is the database ever going to be upgraded to allow the proper items per lot usage for Large Houses and GuildHalls? The current "nerf" was deemed "temporary" by Holocron when it was first introduced.
Gosh, I hope so. If the Oracle database is really the cause of this, time to throw out Oracle and find a database robust enough to handle the data SWG needs.
If this has been mentioned before then I apologise but I'm not reading through thousands of posts to see 
Would it be possible to have an option for a droid to auto recharge as long as you have the batteries? I ask this as a doctor who buff's via a macro and if the droid powers down I may not notice I'm not buffing.
Just an obversation/questions about Jedis..I apologize if it has been asked already....but here goes...
Are there plans to have different Jedi specialization? I mean if you read the books you know there are different types....like healers or teachers, pilots or warriors....things like that.
I hope with the revamp it doesn't keep all Jedi generic like the current system does.
The first suggestion I would like to make is a non-merchant/Merchant vendor control issue. I know I have seen quite a few threads out there discussing the issue but really haven't read all the posts. The issue is to give the ability to use and tend to a vendor without having the skill to have it. My suggestion I think would be not only helpful to the weary player try to find an honest merchant to run a vendor for him and give him the moneys for the product. But I think it could be quite lucritive for the merchant as well.
First with the Merchant skill tree
- In the management branch why not add a skill able to allow the Merchant to basically rent vendor space.
Of course the higher you go up the branch the more vendors you can rent out to other players other then
yourself.
- With this skill the Merchant along with the player searching for the use of a vendor would decide in a
trade like screen (where both parties can be involved with the decision)a percent of which the merchant
would profit. ie.. The Merchant and player decide that what ever the player puts on the vendor the
Merchant will receive a 20% cut. I think with this type of system both the merchant and the player
become happy.
- An issue I could see that could be resolved is to make the trade like screen where they would decide on
percent. To limit the percent to as low as 10% and as high as 50%. This way the merchants can't run
away with all the money and both parties can win.
- now with the abilities granted to the merchant the vendor would be given ownership to the player which
could come and go as he pleases to drop loots and resources or what ever he/she would like on the
vendor. For any changes to be made on the vendor the merchan and the player need to be present to
operate the vendor to make the changes. ie.. % cut or want to change the name of the vendor,
anything.
Second and final the player that wants the use of the vendor
- of course I don't think everyone wants them in the game but it opens a door up to the opportunity.
I think every player should be allowed only one if the skill is not there to own and operate your own.
- That is the only way it could work similar to the way every player is offered 10 lots. But this one
can only be used by working with a merchant.
Over all I think it makes the Merchants profession a little more lucritive and maybe even tempting to pursue then in the past. Also I think it would possibly resolve the issue of grinding up business III in artisan and getting your vendor and then dropping it all and allowing to still keep your vendor. I think I put in some balance and controls but as forums do offer a bunch of criticism and more chatter about a topic I'm sure it would be nice for a few eye brows to raise.